JLPT 2008 Application Sent!
Some of you may remember my high praise of a good friend one year ago today when my application attempts got fouled up. That year she took a day of paid vacation, took a bus to a neighboring prefecture, bought an application, filled it out, and sent it in on my behalf. She didn’t tell me the extent to which she’d gone until she was on the bus back to Ehime and she wanted to know what to do about the required picture. Needless to say, I flipped out. Well, guess what? She has rescued me again. I bought the JLPT 2008 application online from Rakuten Books. They originally told me that it would ship in 1 to 3 days - but due to a backorder, they still have not shipped it to me. I placed my order 2 weeks ago. Tomorrow is the deadline for postmarking the application. I shall be refusing to pay for the application if they try to send it to me now. And I won’t feel bad about it. (Apologies to any other folks who tried to follow my hack. It didn’t turn out so well. 
) I called the Kinokuniya in Matsuyama, had them pull an application for me and hold it at the desk. The same brilliant friend picked it up, filled it out, and mailed it for me again. I would be truly helpless without the friends I’ve got. I’ll be failing the JLPT level 1 in December if all goes according to plan. (I’m praying I can pull off 45 - 50% on the level 1, which, while failing, would still be an improvement technically speaking on my performance on the JLPT level 2.) 
Yikes. Soooo unprepared.